Encyclopedia of Russian History

Yeltsin aired his grievances at the Central Committee Plenum on October 21, 1987. The plenum agenda included approving Gorbachev’s anniversary speech, but that was not the presentation that attracted the most attention. Following Gorbachev’s presentation, Yeltsin delivered an impromptu speech, lasting for about ten minutes, complaining about the slow pace of reforms, Lig-achev’s intrigues, and a new cult of personality emerging around Gorbachev. Yeltsin charged that leaders were sheltering Gorbachev from the harsh realities of Soviet life. Though this secret speech was not published at the time, its contents soon became public. The plenum itself turned into three hours of criticism heaped on Yeltsin. He was criticized not so much for the content as for the style and the timing of his comments. Yeltsin regularly had opportunities to voice such concerns at weekly Politburo meetings; that he had chosen this particular forum against the direct order of Gorbachev indicated Yeltsin’s immaturity and arrogance. Gorbachev now accepted Yeltsin’s prior resignation from the Moscow Party Committee and asked the Central Committee to enact appropriate resolutions for his removal. He was also stripped of his seat on the Politburo. Yeltsin thus became the first high-level Gorbachev appointee to lose his position.

Yeltsin was not exiled back to Siberia, however. Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin to be first deputy chair of the USSR State Committee for Construction, a post that allowed him to remain in Moscow and in the political limelight. Yeltsin also remained popular with Muscovites, many of whom felt they had lost an ally. Almost one thousand residents of the capital staged a rally to support Yeltsin, which had to be broken up by police. Yeltsin was unavailable. As would frequently occur during his political career, times of high political drama tended to incapacitate him. At the time of the Central Committee Plenum, Yeltsin was hospitalized for an apparent heart attack. He was literally taken from his hospital bed to attend the session of the Moscow City Committee to be formally fired.

Yeltsin reappeared in public at the 1988 May Day celebration, joining other Central Committee members to watch the annual parade. He was selected as a delegate from the Karelian Autonomous

1706

Socialist Republic for the extraordinary Nineteenth CPSU Conference in June; Party officials may have selected the remote constituency to reduce publicity for Yeltsin. Instead, the publicity came on the last day of the Conference.

Gorbachev allowed Yeltsin to speak at the Conference in order to clear the air of rumors regarding the October affair and to see what this “man of the people” had to say. On live television, Yeltsin began by responding to criticisms recently levied against him by his fellow delegates and then tried to clarify his physical and mental condition at the Moscow City Plenum. He repeated his criticism of the slow pace of reform and of privileges for the Party elite. Then, for the first time in Soviet history, a disgraced leader publicly asked for rehabilitation. Yeltsin was followed to the podium by Ligachev, who continued to criticize and denigrate the fallen Communist. When the Conference ended, Yeltsin had not been reinstated. But in a move suggesting that Gorbachev had some respect for Yeltsin’s point of view, Ligachev was soon reassigned to agriculture.

RISING DEMOCRAT

Yeltsin began a remarkable political comeback with the March 1989 elections to the first USSR Congress of People’s Deputies (CPD). Although the Central Committee declined to put Yeltsin on its slate of candidates, some fifty constituencies nominated him. Yeltsin opted to run from Moscow-not Sverdlovsk-and won almost 90 percent of the vote, despite an official smear campaign. When the CPD announced candidates for the new Supreme Soviet, Yeltsin was not on the ballot. Large popular protests began in Moscow, and delegates were swamped with telegrams and telephone calls supporting Yeltsin. Ultimately Alexei Kazannik, a deputy from Omsk, offered to relinquish his seat to Yeltsin-and Yeltsin only. Yeltsin became co-chair of the opposition Inter-Regional Group and called for a new constitution that would place sovereignty with the people, not the Party. Further signaling his break with Gorbachev, during the July 1990 Twenty-eighth Party Conference, Yeltsin dramatically resigned from the CPSU, tossing his party membership card aside and striding out of the meeting hall. He had cast his lot with the Russian people.

Meanwhile, Yeltsin had established roots in the RSFSR, giving him a political base to challenge Gorbachev. He was elected to the Russian Congress of

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RUSSIAN HISTORY

YELTSIN, BORIS NIKOLAYEVICH